The cat is out of the bag
by AJewels
Summary: One possible reason Catherine was so upset at the end of Law of Gravity. This was written for the prompt 12 Broken on Moods 100 for my LJ challenge.


Grissom looked up from his desk as Catherine came to his door.

"You wanted to see me?" She looked haggard and worn making her look older than Grissom remembered.

"Please close the door, Catherine." His voice was low and filled with concern. He moved over to his couch and motioned that she should join him.

"Gil, I'm really bushed; I just want to go home and see Lindsey off to school before getting some sleep." She winced as she watched his face grow cold.

"Sit Catherine. This will only take a few minutes." Grissom pulled off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. "Please Cat, I don't want to pull rank. I just want to talk to you."

Catherine quirked an eyebrow. "Oh? This is new." She sat down on the other side of the couch and sighed, "What happened while you were away?" Her voice was soft. "You're usually so reserved especially at work. I haven't seen you like this since," She paused to think, "Since before the Millander case."

Grissom sighed softly, "Some things happened, but right now this is about you, Cat. You and Keppler." He watched her face as she paled her whole body appearing to sag in on itself. "There is no way to ask this delicately. But were you and he in a relationship?"

Catherine looked shocked as if he physically slapped her across the face. "What the hell business is it of yours?" Her shock quickly turning to anger as she stood up. She glared at him and started to leave.

"Catherine, I'm asking as a friend. I'm worried about you. Your reaction was more than I would expect with a mere friend. I mean even when Eddie was killed you didn't reacted this badly." He stood up grabbing her to turn her around to face him. "I'm worried about you. I want to make sure that you're all right."

Catherine looked up into his eyes angry tears trailing down her face. "Damn you!" She punched his chest as he pulled her close and held her as her anger finally broke and started to cry harder clinging to him. He carefully led her back to the couch and held her while the emotional storm passed.

He ignored the team as they came to his office to find out what was going on. The concerned CSI's all started to come in, Nick in the lead. Grissom caught Nick's eyes and shook his head slightly. He didn't hear what the young Texan said but suddenly the hallway beyond his door was clear.

Catherine slowly stopped crying, her sobs of pain easing as she looked up at Grissom. He held out a tissue. "Blow." He commanded his face brooking no argument.

Catherine couldn't fight the burble of a laugh from coming out as she did what she was commanded to do. "You Gilbert Grissom are not my mother." She took the tissue and wiped at her eyes.

Gil gave her a lopsided grin, "Well I should hope not. I don't have the correct equipment for one thing." He stood up and went to the small fridge behind his desk. "Water?"

"Uh not if you have any experiments in there." She gave him a small smile as she teased him.

Grissom chuckled as he came back with a bottle of water and handed it to her. "No experiments. After all I wasn't here to gauge any results so your safe."

She snorted as she took a sip and sighed, "So." She couldn't say anything further so she took another sip of water.

"So you and Mike?" Grissom prompted as he watched her give a resigned sigh.

She shook her head, "No. Not just no, but hell no." She ran a hand through her hair. "He was just a really good friend, Gil. Honest." She could tell he wasn't going to accept that. "All right, maybe he was more than a friend." She licked her lips playing for time she knew that she didn't have. "Mike was Sam's son."

Grissom frowned, "I thought he was from Trenton." He ran a hand over the back of his neck thoughtfully.

Catherine snorted, "Well you know Sam liked his women and about 2 years after I was born I guess he had some business out on the east coast for a few months. He didn't find out about his son until after he came back I guess. He left a stipulation in his will that me and his son, Michael Keppler were to receive a stipend for the rest of our lives out of the profits in his casinos." She sipped at the bottle again. "I mean I didn't care about the money. Sam left even more to Lindsey but it was the fact that suddenly I had a brother. I had family I didn't know. When he came out west I encouraged him to stick around. Especially when I heard about his old job in Trenton. I didn't know much more about his past though. If I had I wouldn't have been so encouraging." She felt the urge to cry pushing on her again and adamantly refused to give into it.

Grissom nodded, "I know Catherine. Are you going to be all right driving home? I could have one of the team take you? I think it might be best if you take some time off though. You've been through hell the last few days." He stood up taking her hand and pulling her to her feet.

She shook her head, "I'd better go talk with Ecklie. God he's going to have a field day with this." She held the bottle to her head. "God." She gave him a pained smile.

"You won't be alone, Cat. I'll go with you." His voice was soft. He had learned while he was away that these people, his team, were his family. He would do what he had to keep them safe. 


End file.
